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New Day

Unemployment Battle Rages; Northeast In A Deep Freeze; Utah Same-Sex Marriages In Halt; Man Slapper Sentenced; NFL Concussion Case

Aired January 07, 2014 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can go back to this specific argument over long term unemployment benefits. This is one of the problems in Washington when you do everything at a deadline. The people who are affected and whether you're a viewer watching who thinks they should definitely extend the benefits, period. And then deal with how to pay for it, that's a healthy debate.

It's a fair debate. It's an honest debate. But doing it at the deadline, when families are already struggling so much, that's where you get the human element. Again, it's often missing from this debate. This first chapter can actually lead to a month's long conversation about what to do about these issues? Amen, it's about time.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Amen. We'll be watching. The president will be making remarks today. There will be procedural vote in the Senate today as well. Let's have a little fun this morning if we can, John, since we haven't seen you in a while.

KING: Let's do it.

BOLDUAN: Coming back from a holiday, a lot of people get, what, maybe a new sweater to show. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, he came back with something else, a nice new beard to this reaction of the White House press. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Is that for me? Is that for me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened?

CARNEY: My wife says she likes it, so there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So there, John King. Where is the John Hing New Year beard?

KING: John King has never grown a beard. It's not pretty. What you got right there, I am not Wolf Blitzer. I'm no Wolf Blitzer. That's the ultimate example of whether you like it or not. You're watching at home. If she likes it, that's the last votes. It's the only vote that counts, right? BOLDUAN: Of course, we love a good poll. We did a very unscientific poll online. Beard or no beard was the question. Almost 78 percent said, yay for the beard to only 22 percent said no beard. So the people have spoken.

CUOMO: It's so unusual, John, to have anything political that is received favorably. If only a beard --

KING: If you're at the White House a long time. You know, anything that changes the monotony of your day is a good thing.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. I mean when he got new eye glasses, it was a very big deal. I remember that one as well. You look good. No change that I see in the New Year.

KING: No, it's not my thing. They'll be looking like "Duck Dynasty" down there.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, John.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, we're talking about the cold, right? Often the numbers don't tell the story, but this picture does. So cold, lighthouses are turning into icehouses. Boiling water looks like snow when it hits the air. We have more incredible images coming up.

BOLDUAN: Plus one woman wanted to create the worst online dating profile ever. So why were guys still messaging her for dates? She's going to join us next to talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY once again. This record setting blast of cold air is bearing down on the east this morning. And the brutal temperatures we saw in the Midwest, making their way toward big cities including New York and Boston. This isn't from a movie. The cold froze this lighthouse solid with icicles pretty much pointing out each way.

Indra Petersons is back with the latest from Battery Park here in New York City. So Indra, what should people be looking out for today?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think it's obvious at this point. It is just dangerously cold across the country, millions of people dealing with the cold. Yesterday we knew about the particularly dangerous situation in Minnesota and South Dakota where temperatures even this morning were good 50 degrees below.

I want to talk about how quickly this air mass is spreading. They've actually already recovered. I'm going to say recovered like that, because they're down to about 30 below zero right now because the air mass has now spread into the northeast, and because it's spreading so quickly, we have very strong winds just howling out here.

We keep getting relief herein side the truck. It's below zero temperatures across the entire northeast today. That's the change we're talking about, 60 degree change in just 24 hours. That's the change we are talking about. Temperatures aren't expected to warm as we go throughout today.

The high today only expected to be about 2 degrees warmer than the lows in the morning. That's the difference there. Cold air spreading all the way down into the southeast where their temperatures will be 30 degrees below zero as well even heavy snow off of the lakes today. We're talking about relief as early as tomorrow.

CUOMO: Indra, you get my respect for being out there and my sympathy.

PETERSONS: Hard earned, thanks.

CUOMO: I cannot believe how good you sound. People don't know how bad your face freezes out. I'm getting sick just watching you.

PETERSONS: Good to know.

CUOMO: We'll be back later.

No doubt the deep freeze has been brutal. Even polar bears and penguins at the Chicago Zoo are being kept in doors. Stephanie Elam is live in Minneapolis, one of the coldest places in the country with more. Stephanie, looking good.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. For some of us the term polar vortex maybe something to curse about, but for others, it's a reason to go out and have some fun. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: They say it's about 20 below.

ELAM (voice-over): With this week's arctic blast, what may be one man's frozen tundra is another's winter wonder land. Despite the biting temps, a brave few are testing the elements. It's so cold that if you take boiling water and throw it into the sky it turns into snow just like this. Some are getting creative timing the 2 minutes it takes to freeze a wet t-shirt in Michigan and blowing bubbles into the brisk wintery air. Watch as the now frozen bubbles roll across the deck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reminds you that you're alive. That's what I like to think.

ELAM: This cold spell even stunting the skeptics, proving you can freeze an egg if it's cold enough and a whole tray of ice cubes in less than 20 minutes. Lighthouses in Michigan are icing over and contact lens deliveries are freezing too, stunning customers.

And while many sought the warmth of their vehicles and homes, one brave couple in Montreal, Canada didn't let the wintery weather freeze out their wedding plans. Thanks to a back gyp boiler and heavy jackets, they tied the knot in minus 15-degree weather.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ELAM: It is negative 14 degrees out where we are right now, but apparently it's not too cold for some people who have been out here jogging. I can't believe it, but they're actually out here running.

BOLDUAN: I think we've just become stunned to silence with that one.

CUOMO: Stephanie, you win. With that coat, you win, the look of cold this morning.

BOLDUAN: She can't even smile. Her giggles are frozen. Exactly. Thanks, Stephanie.

We're going to take a break. Stephanie's going to try to warm up. Coming up next on NEW DAY, quite an experiment in online dating, a woman did everything she could to drive men away from her with her profile, but drive them crazy with her photos. We're going to talk to the woman who tried it out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Here are some of the stories making news at this hour. Developing this morning, a step back for gay marriage, Monday, the Supreme Court halted same sex weddings in Utah. The high court ordered marriages stop for now while the state appeals a lower court ruling about on same-sex nuptials was unconstitutional. Gay weddings have been allowed there for less than three weeks. Now, hundreds of recent marriages have been cast in legal limbo.

A tragic shooting in Brunswick County, North Carolina, police officer tasering and gunning down a mentally ill teenager in his own home with his parents looking on in horror. His parents said they called police to their home on Sunday to help with a schizophrenic episode their son was having and claimed their son was shot by an officer while he was being held down. They are now calling for that officer to be charged with murder.

A former aerospace exec who slapped and used a racial slur towards a crying toddler on a plane has been sentenced. Joe Rickly Handley received an 8-month prison sentence on Monday. His attorney was angling for six months saying that Handley was traveling to remove his dying son from life support after an insulin over dose and was emotionally distraught. She also blamed his alcoholism for his behavior.

We are learning details of how the $765 million settlement with the NFL could be divided among former players for concussion-related claims. Those suffering from the disease could receive as much as $5 million, up to $4 million could go to families of brain damaged players who committed suicide and as much as $3 million for dementia cases. A federal judge needs to approve this plan.

Check out the stunning surveillance video from a gas station in Walpole, Massachusetts. The car comes barrelling through crashing into the attendant, knocking over a gas pump, which explodes in flames. Police say the 83-year-old driver accidentally hit the gas instead of the break. The gas station worker who was hit is now in the hospital, but he is expected to make a full recovery.

BOLDUAN: Thank goodness.

PEREIRA: It could have been much worse when you think about it.

BOLDUAN: Let's take another break here on NEW DAY. Coming up next, her goal was to create the worst online dating profile ever. Could you do it? Despite her profile, it did not stop many guys from messaging her for dates. We're going to talk to that woman about her grand experiment after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: This is my jam.

BOLDUAN: Everyone's jam. Welcome back everybody. One woman decided to conducted an experiment to create an online dating profile for a woman so awful no one would want to message her or want to meet her. Using a modelling photo of a friend of hers, Alli Reed created Erin Carter fan, a lovely woman who spends her days partying. Her parents pay her bills because they think she's in law school, she says.

And she's also quote, good at convincing people I'm pregnant, LOL, she says. She also says on Friday nights, she likes knocking cups out of homeless peoples' hands and says she throws drinks in people's faces. If you thought this profile kept guys at bay, you would be 100 percent wrong. She got 150 messages in 24 hours.

Let's talk to a woman behind this grand experiment, Alli Reed, is joining us live from Los Angeles this morning. Good morning, Alli.

ALLI REED, WRITER/CRACKED.COM COLUMNIST: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: So Alley, you've got to explain this to me. I'm not sure we should laugh or cry at the reaction that you got to this experiment of yours. You tried to be mean, spoiled, lazy, racist and as you write, throw in a little gold digging for fun. Why did you do it?

REED: I had been on online dating sites on and off for maybe five years now. While I had success, it can get extremely disheartening. It feels like guys would message any profile a woman would put up there. As an experiment for myself, I thought could I make a profile that proves there is a lower limit? There is a point at which no man will message her? I failed miserably.

PEREIRA: As long as this photo is hot so that was the big thing, right, because you made yourself to be this horrific human being but kind of cute, kind of hot.

REED: Exactly, yes. I used my friend who's an Australian model. She consented to let me raid her Facebook photos, which was wonderful of her.

CUOMO: Why do you think people messaged? Do you think it was just because the picture is an attractive person or do you think they thought it was cheeky? Do you think they didn't take it seriously, liked the edge? What do you think?

REED: I don't think anyone who messaged her actually read her profile. I really hope. I have to believe that. Once people had messaged her, I had that up two to three weeks. She got close to a thousand messages. I wanted to convince them that this was the worst woman on earth. So all of my messages in response were, I will pull out your teeth. I'll give you a tattoo in your sleep. This is not a woman you want to get to know. As you can see from the article up on cracked.com, that still did not deter a lot of men.

BOLDUAN: Alli, I was reading the article and your third attempt to deter and get them to stop messaging was saying complete and utter nonsense like arguing with one of them about the smiley face emoticon that he had put in his message. What was the most surprising fact besides clearly people have issues, the most surprising thing about this experiment?

REED: The amount of nonsense that some men are willing to put up with for a pretty photo. I mean, she makes it clear she will ruin your life and that some men were still like that sounds great. What are you doing this Friday? That was surprising to me.

PEREIRA: After you wrote the article about the experiment, people came back at you saying you're a man hater, et cetera. What's your response to that?

REED: Well, I want to point out I'm not a journalist. I'm not a social scientist. This would not hold up in peer review. I'm a comedy writer. I didn't have a point to make. I thought it would be funny. I think it was funny. I don't want to indict an entire gender for this. It's a small group of men.

CUOMO: I don't know how you avoid it to be honest.

BOLDUAN: You're a great writer. You should read. Everyone go on the web site and read how you write about your experiment. It's really hilarious.

PEREIRA: Are you going back online dating or no?

REED: Actually a funny story. While I was running this experiment, I had my own personal profile on OK Cupid and I met my current boyfriend.

PEREIRA: She's a triple threat.

CUOMO: I hope the tattoo in his sleep works out.

BOLDUAN: And the fact he's going to lose some teeth. Thanks so much, Alli. Good luck.

REED: Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: All right, coming up, another uncertainty. When we come back, Dennis Rodman unfiltered. The issues are serious. He's in North Korea and brought NBA players there that say they want to help the people of North Korea by exposing them to basketball, but what about Kenneth Bay.

Wait until you hear what Dennis Rodman says about Kenneth Bay and about what makes him really mad. It's not what's going on in North Korea. We'll also speak with Kenneth Bay's sister live to remind you what the man live is dealing with, not Rodman but Kenneth Bay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)